How I write

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I write out of inspiration and compulsion.

It starts with an idea. That buzzes around my head for a while. I wait until I have another idea and marry them together. Then I place my ideas in a setting. Then a character comes to mind.

When I have those dominoes in place I shove the first one.

Thar first word sets the process in motion. The words tumble out. The ideas develop, the characters spawn and a story coalesces out of my subconscious.

For the duration of the writing I live and breath the story. The characters develop, the setting becomes richer and the story evolves. Often I have no idea what comes next but my subconscious seems to know. The dominoes tumble and one knocks another as I frantically attempt to keep up. It’s intense.

The idea for my latest book – The Time Traveller – came to me a long while ago. I had this idea of going back in time with modern weapons and the effect that would have on ancient armies. It felt too comic book but the idea wouldn’t go away. My mind kept mulling over the thought of missiles and bazookas against ancient armies. I imagined Hannibal and the Punic wars. Then I started thinking about the effect of that power on the human mind. A twentieth century nobody suddenly finding themselves the most powerful man on the planet. What would be the effect on his psyche.

My character had to be rich in order to afford to build a time machine.

I had to have a scientific genius from the backstreets who just needed the money and backing but who did not trust governments.

I chose the Punic Wars as the setting.

It ran from there. I wrote the first draft in eleven days. It flowed and developed a life of its own. I rewrote it in a further four days. It is currently being edited.

Poetry – The Flame of ideas

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The Flame of ideas

Once an idea has been lit

The match cannot be unstruck.

For the brain is dry tinder

And the flames will run amok.

Trails of petrol between us

Take the form of words.

Flames jump from mind to mind

As hot as searing swords.

We set the world alight

With the ideas we concoct

Delving into mysteries

That we have then unlocked.

Sometimes we create

Religion, philosophy and politics

That tyrannise the people

With a bunch of wicked tricks.

Sometimes we create answers

To problems in the world

And make life much better

With the truths we have unfurled.

If only all our ideas

Were all for the best

Those flames could burn fiercely

Nobody would be oppressed.

Opher – 12.11.2019

Human beings are very much a duality. We are so good at solving problems and coming up with ideas. The only trouble is that not all our ideas are good ones.

These ideas and inventions spread like wildfire. They have created our success. They have also created much misery.

Often we cannot tell if an idea is going to produce something beneficial or destructive. Only time can tell. I mean, is the idea of god a good one? Or the invention of the atomic bomb?

Was language a good thing? Or writing?

Once an idea has been unleashed we cannot uncreate it.

An inspired quote by Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Astronaut.

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As we move out of 2019 with all its problems of populist leaders, right-wing extremism, environmental destruction and nationalism I am looking towards a brighter future.

Dewin sent me this inspired quote by Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Astronaut.

“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let’s say 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. The all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument suddenly silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.”

Hopefully the world will wake up from its folly and start building towards a better future!!

Thank you Dewin!!

Thank you Michael Collins!!

Here’s to a better world!!

Love and Peace – Opher

Irrelevant Battles – Patrick Fitzgerald – A song that anticipated Brexit and the hopelessness of so many people.

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This song came out in 1978. This was Thatcher’s Britain. The working class had lost respect and a place in society. The well-paid, tough jobs that they had worked at were gone. The mines, shipyards and steel works were closing. The opportunities had dried up. They found themselves stacking shelves in supermarkets for low-pay. All their self-respect and status as ‘Salt of the Earth’ evaporated. Many found themselves on the dole and were described as lazy scroungers. It was tough. The estates, once proud, were scenes of drug abuse and crime with bored youth seeing no future.

Patrick Fitzgerald saw the hopelessness and reported it in this song. The Middle Class were oblivious. They were focussed on the global arena and not the plight of the working class. This feeling of hopelessness and abandonment that the working class felt was to surface in the referendum.

The working class were fed up with the establishment that had taken their jobs, their pride and their future and did not seem to care about them at all! The middle class were doing all right and were too busy fighting their irrelevant battles. But for me – those battles aren’t irrelevant. All the world is being steamrolled by the establishment in search of wealth and power. The working class were victims as were the poor people all round the world. It is the system of inequality that is to blame not the poor Chilean and Vietnamese.

But what a great song!

 

 

PATRIK FITZGERALD “Irrelevant Battles” (1978)

You’re all too busy saving children in Chile
And helping (?) victims on the other side of the world
But when the war was over in Vietnam
You had three adopted boys and five adopted girls,
Gotta post through parcels when they’re starving in Afghanistan
India, Kenya, or anywhere we’re winning
I seen some tramp asking for the time on the street
You just said: “Sorry, I’m fast” but not as fast as your feet

You’re too busy fighting your irrelevant battles
To see what’s going on in your own backyard
You’re too busy fighting your irrelevant battles
To see what’s going on in your own backyard
‘Cause some of us are having a hard, hard time
Yeah some of us are having a hard, hard time

And you’re all too busy saving children in Chile
And helping (?) victims on the other side of the world
But when the war was over in Vietnam
You had three adopted boys and five adopted girls

You’re out on the streets with your little placards
Marching up and down saying: “Tear it down!”
I don’t think you’re really seeing what you’re talking about
Except for the tourist version no doubt

You’re too busy fighting your irrelevant battles
To see what’s going on in your own backyard
You’re too busy fighting your irrelevant battles
To see what’s going on in your own backyard
‘Cause some of us are having a hard, hard time
You know that some of us are having a hard, hard time
Because some of us are having a hard, hard time

My influences – Music – Aesthetically

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My Influences – Music – Aesthetically

 

Aesthetically  
Pink Floyd Some music can take you on a ethereal journey. The long drawn out dreaminess of Syd Barrett’s Astronomy Domine was the first piece of music to do that for me. I find that you can let yourself go into a trance-like state and your mind flows with the interweaving strands. Pink Floyd were masters at creating that mood. I can put on an album, shut my eyes and allow my mind to drift through the beat, the notes, the rise and fall -= wonderful.
Jimi Hendrix The only things restricting Hendrix were the limitations of the electric guitar and his own imagination.

No matter what he is doing – the electrifying performance of a live show, the recordings or just doodling in the studio, I find his guitar-work compelling. My mind latches on to those notes and riffs as he weaves them through the beat of the bass and drums. He can make it exhilarating or dreamy, fluid or edgy. For me he was the consummate musician.
Love Arthur Lee and Brian MacClean created a complexity of song and music that soared into a different hemisphere. The harmonies and structure of the songs, their lyrics and vocals were the classical music of Rock. They painted pictures in my brain.
Captain Beefheart Many people find Beefheart music discordant and impenetrable. I think you probably have to first access it live. It is complex. But once you have penetrated the structure the wonder of it is revealed. The interweaving guitars and bass become wondrous and mind expanding; the vocals immense; the poetry and voice creating images. It is no longer discordant; it is wonderful and the most satisfying music ever created.

People who have inspired me!

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The people who have inspired me have been human beings who have stood up for freedom, equality, fairness, justice and passion! They have been writers, artists, politicians, musicians, scientists, film-makers and ordinary people!

Emily Pankhurst, Thomas Jefferson, Bobby Searle, Angela Davies, Jerry Rubin, Jack Kerouac, Roy Harper, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Tom Payne, Gerrard Winstanley, William Morris, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Levellers, Tolpuddle martyrs, Patrick McGoohan, Ken Russell, Picasso, George Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Beatles, John Lennon, Germaine Greer, Bob Dylan, Nick Harper, Bob Marley, Michael Smith, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Dylan Thomas, Vincent Van Gogh, Guagin, Renoir, Goons, Monty Python, Ken Loach, Plato, Philip K Dick, UN Declaration of Human Rights, Kurt Vonnegutt Jnr, D H Lawrence, Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, Desmond Morris, Gordon Rattray Taylor, Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, Pink Floyd, Albert Einstein, Gallileo, Lennin, Karl Marx, Ken Saraweyo, Arthur C Clarke, Henry Miller, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Don Van Vliet, George Best, Marty Feldman, Jello Biafra, Woody Guthrie, Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band, Country Joe & the Fish, Enid Blyton, Donovan, Leonard Cohen, George Orwell, Jefferson Airplane, Robert Sheckley, Haruki Murakami, Iain Banks, Ian McEwan, Christopher Hitchins, Jacque Cousteau, Stephen Hawkins, Pete Smith, Stiff Little Fingers, Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Richard Dawkins, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, John Steinbeck, Buddha, Richard Brautigan, Herman Hesse, The Rolling Stones, Son House, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Isaac Asimov, Jane Fonda, James Dean, Jerry Lee Lewis, Salvador Dali, Magritte, Heironymus Bosch, Lenny Bruce, Norman Mailer, John Lee Hooker, Jimi Hendrix, Jackson C Frank, Frank Zappa, Kathy & Toby, John Cooper Clarke, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Clash, Sex Pistols, Red Cloud, Evo Morales, Fidel Castro, Aldous Huxley, Mahatma Ghandi, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Margaret Atwood, Woody Allen, Mr Tranter, A S Neill, David Attenbrough, Pete Seeger, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Fugs, Kashuo Ishiguro, Keith Moon, Cream, Edmund Cooper, Ivan Illich, Tony Benn, and hosts of others.

I am continually inspired!!

Perhaps you would be inspired by some of my books?